Unmanned-aircraft Systems (UAS) flying under the National Airspace System (NAS) need to operate with the same obstacle detection and avoidance capabilities as a piloted vehicle. In particular, UASs operate under the same instrument flight rules for manned vehicles as Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC) and Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC) allow under the NAS. Hence, UASs must possess equivalent sensing and reaction performance capabilities of piloted vehicles.
One technique of providing a necessary field of view (FOV) for a UAS is to use a two-gimbaled radar system. A two-gimbaled radar system rotates along the azimuth angle and the elevation angle in a raster scan motion. However, this raster scan motion causes delay in the update rate. In particular, at each end of the field of view, the gimbaled radar system slows, comes to a stop, and begins moving in the opposite direction at a new elevation angle. Delay in the update rate can result in a delayed reaction to obstacles in the vehicles path.
For the reasons stated above and for other reasons which shall become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art upon reading and studying the present application, there is a need in the art for an improved radar system with a faster update rate.